Friday, November 30, 2007

The month of the Dead opens with Israel recognising the Patriarch, with the monks in Burma returning to the streets, satire of Il Papa condemned, Cardinal Biffi drops bombshell, All Saints Day is commented upon...

...Commission drafts Missal translation, Irish RC moves on education, Brady announced as Cardinal, All Souls Day remembered, priests fear drinking altar wine may put them over limit, Saudi King to meet with Il Papa, Belgium now anti-Scientology...

In a lawsuit filed here Wednesday, a former Carlsbad resident claims he was sexually abused by a Franciscan brother while he was a teenage student and parishioner at San Jose and St. Edward Catholic churches.

The civil suit seeks unspecified damages for alleged sexual assaults by Brother Kerry Guillory during the years between 1975 and 1978, when the victim was age 13 to 17. As a result of the years of abuse, the plaintiff claims, he now suffers a host of emotional problems, including difficulty with relationships and trust.

Guillory was working with the Catholic Youth Organization in Carlsbad at the time the alleged abuse took place.

"This suit gives the victim a chance to gain back his innocence and live a life of dignity," said Kevin McGuire, an attorney for the plaintiff.

In addition to Guillory, other defendants named in the complaint include the Diocese of Las Cruces, the Diocese of El Paso, San Jose Catholic Church of Carlsbad, St. Edward Catholic Church of Carlsbad and the Province of Our Lady of Consolation.

Bishop Ricardo Ramirez was said to be out of his office at the Diocese of Las Cruces and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Guillory, estimated by the plaintiff to be in his mid 60s, is now the director of the Franciscan Shelter House in Louisville, Ky. The Current-Argus was unable to reach Guillory for comment.

The victim alleges that Guillory took a special interest in him and gained his confidence by pretending to be a friend, counselor and spiritual mentor. Guillory allegedly began to isolate the teen from others on church retreats and during other church functions. These contacts grew into a further relationship where Guillory allegedly began to take the boy on trips with him and buy him alcohol and marijuana.

The suit alleges that beginning in 1977, when the plaintiff was 16 years old, Guillory took him on trips to El Paso, Dallas, Houston and other places, during which he forced the teen to share a bed with him in the hotels.

During this time, Guillory allegedly began to sexually molest and abuse the boy by hugging and kissing him. The molestation then escalated, and eventually Guillory began to sodomize the boy regularly, the lawsuit claims.

The molestation and sexual abuse were carried out numerous times for about two years and caused the teen a great deal of distress and actual physical harm, the complaint states.

Many of the acts were carried out by Guillory on the premises of San Jose and St. Edward churches and were done within full view of other priests, students, administrators and staff, the suit alleges.

The suit also alleges that while the abuse was going on, the other defendants knew about the incidents and were also aware that Guillory was sexually abusing other students at the two churches. The defendants never told church members or families in the churches in Carlsbad that Guillory had a past history of sexually abusing minors. The suit alleges that with full knowledge of Guillory's history, the church administrators in charge of Guillory actually placed him in the church youth organization, where he had contact with minors on a daily basis.

The plaintiff states that while he was attending San Jose and St. Edward, the church entities named in the suit were engaged in the practice of employing other child molesters besides Guillory. The suit states that church records show prior incidents of inappropriate sexual contact by church staff members with other victims.

The suit also alleges that the church entities attempted to hide Guillory's sexual molestations from the public and from criminal investigations, to the point that there was a policy of a "code of silence." After receiving the reports of Guillory's and others' alleged sexual misconduct, the church entities immediately implemented an elaborate scheme, which was already in place, to conceal the identities and actions of the sexual abusers, the suit states.

The suit is seeking unspecified damages for the alleged sexual battery and assault, and for various types of negligence, fraud and emotional distress.

The lawsuit was filed by McGuire and Royce Hoskins, a Roswell attorney who is serving as in-state counsel for the California law firm handling the case for the victim.

That firm -- Manly, McGuire & Stewart, of Newport Beach, Calif. — also represented victims in the recent $660 million settlement with the Los Angeles Diocese and the $198 million settlement with the San Diego Diocese.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

The human being has dignity and a transcendent dimension, and this is why an independent moral authority, such as the Holy See, has a role to play in international organizations, says an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Monsignor Pietro Parolin, undersecretary for relations with states, affirmed this in a conference delivered Nov. 21 to a group of ambassadors and members of diplomatic corps gathered in the Argentinian Embassy to the Holy See.

The gathering marked the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and that nation.

“The Catholic Church is the only religious institution that can enter into diplomatic relations and that interests itself in international rights, acting through the Holy See, an international sovereign subject of singular characteristics," Monsignor Parolin said.

He explained that an adequate understanding of the Holy See, as such, requires two distinctions. First, one must bear in mind that the Holy See cannot simply be identified with the Church, as a community of believers.

And second, it cannot be identified with Vatican City State, a geographical place that assures the freedom of the Roman Pontiff.

“The Holy See is the Holy Father himself inasmuch as he is an independent, universal, spiritual authority, together with the organizations of the Roman Curia that collaborate with his mission,” he defined.

The Holy See thus requires a particular status, such as that given by the definition of “subject ‘sui juris,'" meaning the Holy See defines for itself its juridical organization and does not receive it from outside, and as such, can enter into relationship with other states.

The Holy See currently has diplomatic relations with 176 states. It has a presence at the United Nations as an observer state, membership in seven organizations or agencies within the U.N. system, and is an observer in another eight. The Holy See also has observer status in five regional organizations.

Objective

The “tenacious” assertion of its own international personality and the petition of the Holy See to intervene in international policy debates in order to offer its contribution is far from an interest in safeguarding its own independence, underlined Monsignor Parolin.

If the Holy See wishes to place itself as “an independent interlocutor of the states and to express an authorized judgment about the problems that affect lives,” it is because “it thinks that it represents a dimension of man that, although decisive in the life of the societies, is not fully under the jurisdiction of the states, nor does it end in them," he said.

The key, he explained, is the dignity of man, which is prior to the existence of the state. Respect for this dignity is the thermometer of the legitimacy and justice of any legal norm. And “this dignity of the individual has as an essential element the transcendent dimension [of man]," he said.

"If man did not transcend the material dimension, there would not be sufficient reason for the respect of his dignity to be over and above national interests," observed Monsignor Parolin. "This pre-existence and independence of the dignity of the individual, and more concretely, his transcendent dimension, is the ultimate justification for the existence of a sovereign moral authority independent of the states."

"As a consequence, the Holy See, in its international activity, without interfering in the realms and responsibilities proper to the states, proposes itself as guardian of the human person and religious liberty," Monsignor Parolin continued.

Action

The Vatican official said that working in the Secretariat of State, especially in the section for relations with states, implies having the advantage of a unique watchtower from which to observe and know the international reality, given that one is privy to a constant overall vision formed in part by an almost daily contact with the diplomats accredited to the Holy See.

And guiding the activities of the Holy See in the international realm is what Monsignor Parolin called "the binomial of person-truth."

The Holy See, he said, "attempts to emphasize these concepts, making use of the very tools provided by the international community, such as the manifesto of the United Nations, which solemnly declares that the organization was established in order to save future generations from the scourge of war, in order to reaffirm the faith -- a key word -- in the fundamental rights of man, in the dignity of the human person, in order to ensure the respect for international rights and to promote social progress."

The significant use of the term “faith” in the cited context, enabled the Holy See, in the last U.N. debate, to observe "that the existence of a universal, transcendent truth about man and his intrinsic dignity was affirmed, [a truth] that is not simply a historic creation, but is rather a reality that precedes and determines all political activity," such that “no ideology of power can suppress such truth," the monsignor recalled.

And it is this dignity of the human being, he added, “that determines the just balance of national interests, which can never consider themselves absolute,” and whose defense “should contribute to promoting the common good of all men.”

“The Holy See emphasizes constantly that respect for the dignity of man, therefore, is the deepest ethical foundation for the search for peace and in the building of international relations," Monsignor Parolin affirmed. "The lack of, contempt for, or partial adhesion to this principle is the origin of conflicts, of environmental degradation and of injustices."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

James Turner (right) is cross-examined Wednesday by diocesan attorney David Cleary on the third day of the second trial in Turner's lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.

James Turner sat on the same witness stand and told the same story alleging how a Vermont priest sexually abused him as a teenager 30 years ago.

But unlike the first time Turner testified last June, Wednesday didn't end in a mistrial.

Instead, the 47-year-old Northeast Kingdom native told a new judge and jury about his claim that the former Rev. Alfred Willis — a priest in Burlington, Montpelier and Milton before being defrocked in 1985 — performed oral sex on him when he was 16, and why he's holding the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese responsible in a civil lawsuit in Chittenden Superior Court.

"I was taught that a priest was God's representative on Earth," Turner said. "You were taught you could trust a priest."

Turner's lawsuit, originally billed as the first priest misconduct case in years to reach a Vermont jury, now is said by the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to be the first in the country to go to retrial.

Turner, a resident of Virginia Beach, Va., was testifying on the fourth day of the original trial June 25 when a church lawyer asked him a question banned under a pretrial order. As a result, Judge Ben Joseph declared a mistrial and ordered the diocese to pay the plaintiff $112,450 in legal costs.

Judge Matthew Katz has taken over the case, which 10 women and four men (in a 12-member jury with two alternates) are hearing this week.

On Wednesday, diocesan lawyer David Cleary treaded close to the same subject that caused the mistrial — specifically, a court ban against talk of a sexual affair between Willis and Turner's older brother, a fellow priest.

But Cleary continued: "Do you believe your brother had respect for Father Willis?"

Turner's lawyers again objected.

The judge replied: "I don't really see the relevance of this."

That exchange came after Turner recalled the night he alleges Willis performed oral sex on him in June 1977. The two, Turner said, were staying in a roomful of family and friends at the Latham, N.Y., Holiday Inn after his older brother became a Catholic deacon earlier that day.

"First I was woken up out of a sound sleep. Then I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I was shocked, surprised. I couldn't believe this was happening to me."

Turner also remembered the next morning.

"I felt dirty, absolutely filthy. I took what seemed to be a long, long shower. I could not wash that off."

One of Turner's lawyers, John Evers, asked why he didn't tell anyone at the time.

"My thought was who would believe me? I'm a kid. He was the almighty, so to speak."

Turner said he next saw Willis several months later at the end of 1977, when the priest woke and tried to abuse him again while staying at the teenager's home in Derby.

"I told him to stop. He told me enjoy it. At that point I got angry. I pushed him against the wall. I was going to punch him, but I stopped because I didn't want to cause a commotion and wake up my parents."

But later Wednesday, Cleary presented a past court deposition in which Turner said he didn't destroy Willis' gift basketball but instead gave it to someone else.

Said Cleary: "Is truth different from time to time for you? Which is the truth?"

Replied Turner, who said he was undergoing mental health therapy: "I remember things more now than I did back then."

Said Cleary: "To what extent did your memory improve because you're in a lawsuit?"

Replied Turner: "None of it."

Turner said he grew up to have two failed marriages and a stormy relationship with a woman addicted to drugs. Then, in 2002, he read headlines about a priest misconduct scandal in Boston.

"The more I read about that whole thing in Massachusetts, the more I was remembering what happened to me in 1977. I started to have nightmares, high anxiety. My life was going into a spiral. I wanted to get off this merry-go-round. I was just wondering if there was a thread through this whole thing."

In 2004, Turner read news that the diocese paid $150,000 to another accuser and admitted it knew Willis had a problematic history as early as seminary yet transferred him repeatedly without telling churchgoers of his past. That's when Turner reported his allegations to the diocese and later filed a lawsuit.

Willis, now 63 and living in Leesburg, Va., has denied the charges but has settled with Turner for an undisclosed "minimal amount," lawyers say.

Church attorneys aren't disputing Turner's abuse claims but say the diocese isn't responsible because it didn't know Willis was a reported child abuser until a year later.

The judge, for his part, ended Wednesday by, after dismissing the jury, questioning whether the plaintiff had enough of a case to ask the diocese for punitive as well as simple compensatory damages.

"I've got a lot of question marks," Katz told Turner's attorneys, who haven't yet asked the jury for a specific financial amount but will be able to argue their case to the judge Thursday.

Turner is one of more than 30 recent accusers to take Vermont's Catholic Church to court. At least six previous accusers resolved similar civil lawsuits against the diocese by accepting a total of more than $1.5 million in settlement money before their cases went to trial. Lawyers for Turner and the diocese tried but failed to negotiate a settlement. As a result, his trial is expected to continue for several more days.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Jansa invited the Holy Father to visit Slovenia in 2009, for the closing of the National Eucharist Congress. During his visit he discussed plans for Slovenia's term at the presidency of the European Union during the first 6 months of 2008. He also spoke about the government's plans for the restoration of church properties that were confiscated by the country's Communist regime.

After his meeting with the Pope, Prime Minister Jansa spoke separately with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that churches need to be brave, imaginative and honest in the fight against the spread of HIV and Aids.

In a message for World Aids Day (Saturday December 2007), issued for the first time as a video available on the internet, Rowan Williams said churches are actively engaged in the global response to HIV and described as 'a scandal' the limited access to drugs and treatment in deprived parts of the world.

"It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be paralysed by this challenge; people do not have to die - drugs and treatment are available - the scandal is that access is so often limited and it is hard to see where justice lies in the way resources are sometimes distributed."

Governments, he said, needed to be challenged to work effectively with faith-based organisations and he praised projects being run in Africa and elsewhere in which organisations like Tearfund and Christian Aid are using the churches' capacity to raise awareness, challenge stigma, promote education and deliver care to those affected by HIV.

But he also called for the church to be honest about its own failures in language and practice in relation to HIV, saying there was no room for complacency.

"The churches have not always challenged as they should the stigma that is attached to HIV and Aids in many countries. They have failed to say that those living with HIV and Aids are God's beloved children, with dignity, liberty and freedom. What is owed to them is what is owed to any human being made in God's image, and the more we are trapped by thoughts and images about stigma, the less we shall be able to respond effectively" he said.

The full text of the message:

A Message for World Aids Day:

"Today is world aids day. Over the last two decades a great deal has been done and still is being done to combat the threat posed by HIV Aids. And it's crucially important that Christian people and people of faith everywhere should respond clearly and bravely to what this challenge represents.

Over the last twenty years I have encountered HIV and aids in many forms. I've encountered it in the death of a friend; I've encountered it sitting by a lonely bedside in South Wales waiting for someone to die. I think also, though, of a day spent with carers and counsellors and people living with HIV in London, where the courage and the even the joy of the group was very much in evidence. And I think of the wonderful work being done by someone like Gideon Byamugisha in Uganda in his hospice - someone who was courageous enough to be the first priest in the whole of Africa to go public about his experience of living with HIV.

Twenty years ago perhaps few of us would have imagined how many of the human race would now be familiar in this way with the problems posed by HIV and Aids, how very near so many people would feel to this threat.But a great deal has been done and still is being done to deal with this and to respond adequately to it. Much of that response throughout the world has been generated by and is being put into action by faith communities including the Christian church. So the churches are out there, already engaging, bravely and imaginatively with this work. But what more might they be doing? What more is there for all of us to do as believers?

We can begin by looking at some of the failures in the churches' response, about which we have to be honest. The churches have not always challenged as they should the stigma that is attached to HIV and Aids in many countries. They have failed to say that those living with HIV and Aids are God's beloved children, with dignity, liberty and freedom. What is owed to them is what is owed to any human being made in God's image, and the more we are trapped by thoughts and images about stigma, the less we shall be able to respond effectively. So the church has nothing to be complacent about. We have to acknowledge that there are aspects of our language and our practice that have certainly made the struggle against HIV and Aids any easier.

And yet we have the vision, we have the energy, the willingness to play our part in tackling this. In the democratic republic of Congo, the Anglican church is responsible, very much through the agency of the Mothers' Union, in running a very comprehensive service that deals with those suffering or likely to suffer from HIV and Aids. It extends from the care of children in the womb to dealing with women and children who are the subjects of sexual violence and it involves a comprehensive educational programme. It's perhaps in raising awareness in education that the churches' universal reach in African society that is of most importance. Few if any other organisations can come anywhere near that universal capacity.

Elsewhere Christian Aid and Tearfund are working with the Anglican Churches in Africa. Tearfund works with nine of the Anglican Provinces on the continent and all of that represents just the small part of the work done worldwide by Christian and other faith organisations. Indeed it's true to say that one fifth of the worldwide provision for education and care in relation to HIV and Aids is provided by faith-based organisations.

It's therefore all the more important for government to recognise that this is so and to be able to work more effectively with these agencies. Faith communities are willing to provide help; their hearts are touched, their energies are awakened by the crisis; at the same time in societies that are already suffering from various kinds of deprivation and disadvantage, this places immense burdens on local communities and it's of the greatest importance that they should be given the capacity to make these challenges adequately.

Here is a challenge that we must all keep putting before our governments; are they able to work effectively with faith-based agencies in combating HIV and Aids?

It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be paralysed by this challenge; people do not have to die - drugs and treatment are available- the scandal is that access is so often limited and it is hard to see where justice lies in the way resources are sometimes distributed.

This too is a moral and a spiritual challenge for the church. It is a spiritual challenge because finally we have to remember that this is not about them and us. Twenty years ago a brave and outspoken Christian commentator observed that 'the body of Christ is HIV positive'.

A startling, perhaps a shocking statement, but a reminder that this is not about 'them and us'; the suffering and the privation of any part of the body is everybody's issue and the suffering and privation by extension of any part of the human family is everybody's issue.

It is in recognising that that we find our deepest most lasting motivation for responding creatively and lovingly to this challenge.

A UK based Christian charity today has launched a new version of the Christmas nativity scene with a difference.

The traditional nativity set has been updated by the Amos Trust with a modern day touch by including the Israeli Separation wall.

This traditional olive wood nativity scene, made by local craftsmen in Bethlehem, now includes the Israeli Separation wall, which surrounds the little town.

Today the wise men would not be able to make it into Bethlehem, the Amos Trust points out, as they would be turned away at the security gate and refused an entry permit.

The £50 deluxe edition comes with a removable Separation wall - in case there's progress in the Middle East peace talks

Part of the trust's work is with partner projects in Gaza, on the West Bank in Bethlehem, and in Israel where it works closely with Jewish, Muslim and Christian peacemakers.

Canon Garth Hewitt, director of Amos Trust and guild vicar of All Hallows on the Wall, London said: "Most people don't realise how cut off Bethlehem is now and how difficult life is for the people living there. We are selling these nativity scenes in the hope that people will give a thought to those living in the little town this Christmas."

The olive wood craftsmen previously sold their work to tourists, but with the massive fall in visitors and current political climate, they have been forced to diversify and to rely on exporting their work overseas to make a living.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

St. Frances Cabrini church, of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, has announced on their website that they are ready to "bless" homosexual partners.

The parish has published a "Statement of Reconciliation" repudiating the Church for its teaching on sexual purity and married chastity and misrepresenting these teachings as a form of "oppression."

The statement said the parish will "Publicly bless the relationships of a same sex couple after the couple completes a process of discernment similar to that completed by heterosexual couples before marriage."

The parish statement goes on to pledge that it will publish in the homosexual press their commitment to the homosexual activist agenda and to including "a gay/lesbian perspective in catechesis at all levels, including elementary school age." The parish currently runs catechesis programmes for children from ages three and up.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pastor of the parish is Fr. Leo Tibesar who is a national leader in the anti-Catholic homosexual lobbying organisation, Dignity.

Fr. Tibesar was recorded this week preaching a homily refuting Catholic teaching on sexuality and accusing those who uphold it, including bishops, Cardinals and "Evangelicals", of hypocrisy.

In May 2006, when it was first revealed Fr. Tibesar's leadership role in the homosexual political movement within the Church, he was not the pastor of any parish.

It was since the revelations of his involvement in the anti-Catholic campaign group that he was assigned to St. Francis Cabrini. He is also a longstanding figure in Archbishop Flynn's archdiocesan programmes preparing couples for marriage.

The parish says it "stands willing" to accept "openly gay or lesbian priests or lay ministers" despite the widely available statistics showing the high prevalence of homosexual clergy perpetrators in the Church's ongoing sexual abuse crisis.

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, head of Human Life International, has said that the parish's statement was "totally contrary to the Catholic faith". "I can only say what the scriptures say, this is an abomination. The blessing of homosexual partners is an abomination and the corruption of children is a scandal," he said.

"The fact that they are placing themselves in opposition to the bishops, that they specifically cite the bishops in opposition to them, means they have placed themselves outside the communion of the Catholic Church and apostolic tradition of the Church. In fact in opposition to it."

Fr. Euteneuer explained that Catholic teaching was not a matter of arbitrary or politically motivated decisions but a "clear understanding of human sexuality passed down to us through the centuries and faithfully passed on by the Church." He added that those actively living a homosexual lifestyle separate themselves "not just from the Church but from God".

The leader of the international Catholic pro-life organization stated, "We're not talking about disordered persons but disordered desires and actions. The bishops have been very clear, and the papal teachings go back forever on this issue. I think what it comes down to is that these people worship a different god than we worship."

In his 2003 book, "Anti-Catholicism in America The Last Acceptable Prejudice", US Episcopal author and historian Philip Jenkins identified these themes as the guiding conventions of the latest wave of anti-Catholic bigotry, fuelled by the sexual and "gender identity" politics common to the American left since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Euteneuer said, "I agree with Jenkins and I think the other side of the coin is that we have people within our own ranks, wolves in sheep's clothing, who are not only not authentic Catholics but are working on an anti-Catholic agenda from within the Church."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Muslims are now the third-largest religious group in the State behind Catholic and members of the Church of Ireland, according to Census figures released by the Central Statistics Office yesterday.

There number of people who said their religion was Islam was 32,500 in April 2006, when the Census was conducted across the State.

The number represents a 70 per cent increase since 2002.

The figures also show that after Catholicism, the biggest recorded group is those who state they have no religion. Some 186,318 people said they had no religion, an increase of 35 per cent on the 2002 Census.

There are now 3,681,446 people who state their religion as Catholic, a 6.3 per cent increase on 2002.

A total of 125,585 said they were Church of Ireland, 32,539 Muslim, 29,206 were members of other Christian religions, 23,546 were Presbyterian, 20,798 were Orthodox, 12,160 Methodist, and 57,928 members of "other stated religions".

Over 90 per cent of the Irish, Polish and Maltese nationals in the State on Census night were Catholics, illustrating a link between certain nationalities and religions. Other largely Catholic nationalities were Filipinos (84.4 per cent), Lithuanians (82.4 per cent) and Italians (79.1 per cent).

Among Pakistani nationals living the State, 97.3 per cent were Muslims, while Greek and Cypriot nationals were predominately Orthodox (70.1 and 66.7 per cent respectively).

Three-quarters of Chinese nationals and 58.2 per cent of Czechs had no religion.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

A Roman Catholic bishop who is on the second day of a hunger strike said Wednesday he was prepared to die unless the government stops work on controversial river diversion project.

The project would divert the Sao Francisco river, the nation's fourth largest, as part of plan to irrigate the country's arid northeast.

The government estimates the plan will benefit about 12 million people in the desperately poor region. Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio and other opponents of the project say it will cause irreversible environmental damage and principally benefit large agribusiness interests and builders.

Cappio said in telephone interview from the small town of Sobradinho in Bahia state that he would not call off his hunger strike unless the government removed army engineers from the work sites and agreed to shelve the project.

"If it is necessary (I will die), I only ask God courage and strength if it comes to that," said Cappio, who is staging his strike at a church on the edge of a lake created by the Sobradinho dam.

"I don't think there is any more space for negotiations. The time for negotiation has ended."

Army engineers began preliminary work in June on the US$2 billion (€1.34 billion) project, which will be contracted out to private companies.

In 2005, Cappio ended a similar hunger strike after 11 days when the government promised to hold public debates on the project — and shortly after he was visited by an envoy from the Vatican.

He acknowledged Wednesday that the Vatican is not in favor of the current hunger strike.

"They have their opinion which is against this, but that won't interfere," he said.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he did not plan to end work on the project.

"I would rather be on the side of 12 million people than on Luiz Cappio's side," he told reporters in Brasilia, the nation's capital.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

While more than 80 per cent of its one million square miles is covered by an ice-cap which is a couple of miles thick in some places, Greenland is statistically the world’s largest island.

In a population of 57,000 people, there are only 50 registered Roman Catholics.

These form part of the parish of Christ the King in Nuuk, the island’s capital.

The Catholics are all non-Greenlanders except for four.

They come from all parts of the world, and most of them are only in the territory for a short time – most for less than three years.

Therefore, there’s a constant flow of changing parishioners.

There is only one church and one parish house and these are in Nuuk. The town was established in 1728 by Danish Lutheran Missionary Hans Egede.

Since 1997 there has not been a resident priest there, but an Oblate Missionary of Mary Immaculate is the parish priest and he commutes there from his far flung parish in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Fr Paul Marx himself is not there all year round – he stays for seven or eight months. In Nuuk, there are about 20 Catholics with the remaining 30 spread out along the southwest and east coast.

The Sunday congregation varies from five or six to 23 or so. Usually a number of non-Catholics also attend on a regular basis.

In the summer of 1980, the Little Sisters of Jesus established a fraternity in Nuuk with three sisters. When asked how he feels to be the only Catholic priest in such an isolated country, Fr Marx replied: “Great! I enjoy it and find it challenging. However, I realise that to minister in Greenland as the only Catholic priest, one needs a special grace and calling from God. Greenland is a contemplative country which suits my temperament.”

His is a very different kind of parish, located as it is in the depths of the Arctic. Fr Marx explained that in September of this year, Religion, Science and Environment – an institute founded and led by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I – held a symposium in Greenland.

The institute concerns itself with the climate and in particular with global warming. The theme of this year’s symposium was The Arctic: Mirror of Life.

“The Arctic is very sensitive to changes in the global climate, and by studying it, one gets a very good picture,” Fr Marx said. “It is a fact that the ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting faster than expected; likewise the glaciers. Something is happening.”

Fr Marx said the Gospel was first proclaimed to the early European settlers of Greenland in the year 1000.

He explained that when Leif the Lucky returned from Nidaros (present day Trondheim in Norway) to his father’s farm at Brattahlid in southern Greenland as a Christian, he brought with him two clerics sent by King Olav Tryggveson.

Fr Marx said: “The Church was then still one Church. It was 54 years before the great split in the East and 536 years before the Reformation in Denmark. In the space of a very short time, all the Norsemen accepted Christ and were baptised.”

That was the birth of the now defunct diocese of Gardar, in 1124. At one point, the Catholic Norsemen numbered around 4,000 in two settlements.

“But by 1450 or so the Norsemen had disappeared from Greenland and with them the Church,” said Fr Marx.

That position lasted for the next 500 or so years.

The Danish Government had adopted a policy of sealing Greenland off from the rest of the world, thereby making the Lutheran Church the only Church allowed in the territory.

This policy was changed with a referendum in Denmark in 1953, which opened Greenland up to the rest of the world and allowed religious freedom.

Fr Marx said the first Catholic priests returned to Greenland when Theodore Suhr, the Benedictine monk who was bishop of Copenhagen in Denmark, went to the Vatican to ask for priests from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate to go there.

“As the story goes, he said there was this huge island of ice and rock near the north pole on the other side of the north Atlantic that made up most of the geographical bulk of the diocese,” Fr Marx said.

“That would be his trump card when he spoke with the Italian cardinals who headed the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, under whose auspices the Diocese of Copenhagen was at that time.

“Bishop Suhr told the cardinals that his diocese included the world’s largest island, which was inhabited by people of Eskimo descent.

“This island had been totally Catholic for almost 500 years. Then Bishop Suhr went on to tell them that now the entire island was Lutheran.

“The statement shocked the Italian cardinals to the depths of their Catholic souls so that they cried out “Scandalum, scandalum. We can’t allow that”. With that, they all signed a document addressed to the Superior General of the Oblates, Fr Leo Dechateletts, strongly recommending that the Oblates send missionaries to the Diocese of Copenhagen to convert the Protestants to the Church.

“Bishop Suhr took the recommendation to the Superior General, and the Superior General of course couldn’t say no.” That was almost 50 years ago now.

However, things are about to change in early 2009 when the Oblates expect to give up the pastoral care of Greenland and a new religious congregation of priests from Mexico is expected to take over.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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A contempt-of-court citation against the Roman Catholic bishop Tod Brown of Orange County has been dropped as part of a nearly $7-million sexual abuse settlement, attorneys said Wednesday.

But the opposing sides disagreed over what led to the action.

Lawyers for the four women allegedly molested by Catholic school and parish employees said the diocese forced them to drop their bid for the citation.

"The diocese insisted that it be done this way or they would have refused to pay our clients," said John Manly, a spokesman for the women.

But Peter Callahan, an attorney for the diocese, said the contempt case was dismissed by the court because it lacked merit.

"I would have welcomed the opportunity to present our case in open court," he said. "It was a totally malicious and non-meritorious claim."

The plaintiffs' lawsuits said they were molested by two Mater Dei High School faculty members, a Santa Margarita Catholic High School teacher and a choir director at St. Timothy's and St. Edward's parishes.

The contempt citation had been requested by the accusers' attorneys after Brown sent an associate, Msgr. John Urell, to Canada for medical treatment before he could complete a deposition in one of the cases. Manly and the other plaintiffs' attorneys had planned to call Urell as a witness because he had handled allegations of abuse against the diocese.

Attorneys for the diocese and Urell, on the other hand, maintained that he suffered from an acute anxiety disorder that prevented him from testifying.

The judge had begun contempt proceedings against the bishop last month, but then postponed the hearing until Dec. 3.

On Nov. 20, meanwhile, the two sides reached a settlement agreement in which the diocese paid the plaintiffs nearly $7 million. It was not until Wednesday that attorneys announced that the contempt citation had been dropped.

"Removal of the citation was not a prerequisite for settlement," the diocese insisted in a statement. "Diocesan legal counsel were fully prepared to respond to [the] attempt to besmirch Bishop Brown's character. . . ."

Manly's office shot back a statement of its own. "This is simply untrue," it said. "The victims wish to express shock and disbelief that Bishop Tod Brown . . . would attempt to mislead the public once again. . . ."

At least one person, Brown himself, was apparently expressing relief.

"Our faith is in large measure founded on the concept of forgiveness," he said in the diocesan statement. "The recent settlements are but one measure of our sincere regret for the events of the past."

Diocese spokesman Ryan Lilyengren added: "We are pleased that all this is over and behind us. Now the victims can move forward with their healing and the diocese can focus on its pastoral mission."++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

A priest fought back tears Tuesday as he paid tribute to his nephew Joseph Cummins, who was murdered last weekend.

The popular 21-year-old rugby player was laid to rest at Ballinaneasagh cemetery near Waterford yesterday, three days after he was killed at a rented property on Lower Grange Road in the city.

The victim, from the Willows, Cairnwood, in Co Waterford, died after being stabbed several times at the house, which is near St John's Park.

A relation of former Lord Mayor Stephen Rogers, Joseph had been planning to return to live with his parents in Tramore after living in the city centre for some time, it emerged yesterday.

Hundreds turned out to bid an emotional farewell to a beloved friend.

His pals remembered him as an outgoing young man who lived for dance music and who was a "huge Johnny Cash fan".

His parents, Joe and Theresa, were consoled by Joseph's sister Dawn (29) and brothers, Paul (26) and Niall (18).

During his homily at the burial ceremony in the Holy Cross Church, Tramore, a visibly upset Fr Tom Rogers, Joseph's uncle, said: "None of us should be attending the funeral of a 21-year-old man. But that is the sad truth," he added.

He described Joseph as a "tall, attractive and athletic young man" whose death is a "loss to international rugby".

Gardai say their investigations are ongoing and they are following definite leads.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Prison chaplains say the prison system is dysfunctional and is faltering from one crisis to another.

The annual prison chaplains' report, published today, has criticised attempts to rehabilitate prisoners as totally inadequate.

It says mentally ill people are still being put in prison and no significant progress has been made in the last 25 years.

The report also criticises the building of more prison places and says imprisonment has been virtually the only response to crime.

The prison chaplain's report paints a picture of a Dickensian prison system where significant numbers of inmates walk aimlessly around prison yards or sleep through the best part of the day in violent drug infested institutions with little hope of rehabilitation.

The chaplains say that more prisoners are seeking protection and serving sentences on almost constant lock-up. The report highlights the lack of drug treatment available to inmates many of whom become drug addicts in prison.

It says there are not enough either preventative programmes to stop people getting involved in crime or to stop them reoffending once released

And it is highly critical of the imprisonment of children.

It says they are the most needy, troubled and damaged young people in the State, almost all of whom left school with no qualification, half are illiterate and many even at this young age are addicted and homeless. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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Cardinal Sean Brady has been welcomed on his return from Rome by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The two men held a private ten-minute meeting in the VIP lounge of Dublin Airport.

The Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppi Lazorrotte, and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin were also on hand to welcome him.

Archbishop Martin and his Church of Ireland counterpart Archbishop John Neill together with representatives of other churches are participating in a Liturgical Service of Welcome at Dublin Airport Church.

At noon, the new Cardinal was scheduled to enter his Diocese of Armagh when he arrived in Drogheda.

The event was marked in Armagh City with the ringing of St Patrick's Cathedral clarion bells.

Later today, the Cardinal will visit a number of towns before being ceremonially welcomed to Armagh where he will celebrate Mass in the cathedral at 8pm.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer

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Benedict XVI has replied to the letter sent on 13 October by 138 Muslim scholars. In his response the Holy Father invites Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, who was behind the initiative, to visit the Vatican with a delegation of signatories, the latter to continue their dialogue with the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

In his reply, which was released today by the Vatican, the Pope reiterates the importance of dialogue based on actual respect for the dignity of the person, on objective knowledge of the other's religion, on the sharing of religious experience, and on a joint commitment to promote mutual respect and acceptance.

In the letter, signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict XVI expresses first of all his “gratitude” to Prince Ghazi and all the other signatories, noting “his deep appreciation for this gesture, for the positive spirit which inspired the text and for the call for a common commitment to promoting peace in the world.”

“Without ignoring or downplaying our differences as Christians and Muslims, we can and therefore should look to what unites us, namely, belief in the one God, the provident Creator and universal Judge who at the end of time will deal with each person according to his or her actions. We are all called to commit ourselves totally to him and to obey his sacred will.”

The letter also mentions that in the Pope’s Encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”) stress is placed in particular on the twofold commandment to love God and one’s neighbour.

From the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI has said that he is profoundly convinced of the need to “affirm the values of mutual respect, solidarity and peace,” and that the “life of every human being is sacred, both for Christians and for Muslims.”

The letter goes on to say that “[s]uch common ground allows us to base dialogue on effective respect for the dignity of every human person, on objective knowledge of the religion of the other, on the sharing of religious experience and, finally, on common commitment to promoting mutual respect and acceptance among the younger generation.”

“The Pope,” it says, “is confident that, once this is achieved, it will be possible to cooperate in a productive way in the areas of culture and society, and for the promotion of justice and peace in society and throughout the world.”

Lastly the Pope invites the prince and “a restricted group of signatories” to visit the Vatican. Likewise he opens the door to them for co-operation and working meetings with the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and other Catholic institutions like the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Pontifical Gregorian University.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Nothing new is known of the whereabouts of Daniel Savci, a 55-year-old Syriac Orthodox priest from Mor Yakup monastery, abducted yesterday in south-eastern Turkey on his way to a parish church in a village not far from Midyat.

The Mor Yakup monastery is a located in the Tur Abdin or Mountain of the Servants of God area, a fabled Turkish plateau on the border with Iraq, home to the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox Christian community in Turkey as well as many Kurds.

According to Anto Nuay, a leader in the country’s 10,000-strong Christian community (2,500 in this south-eastern corner alone), “the priest was forced out of his car and taken to an unknown location by people whose identity is still to be determined.”

A few hours after the abduction someone phoned a friend of the priest demanding a ransom be paid. A SMS text message sent immediately afterwards said: “Be intelligen. If you don’t get 300,000 euros, we’ll kill him.”

Police is trying to find out where the phone call and text message originated. Despite claims by Turkish media that the PKK was behind the kidnapping or rumours that the priest’s body had already been found, investigations have so far turned up nothing. Kidnappers have not made any further contact.

“We know nothing,” said Zeki Demir, secretary general of the Istanbul-based Vicariate of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate. So far the latter has not taken any position on the matter.

What is certain is that the priest was abducted yesterday afternoon and that the police is still trying to figure out who the kidnappers are and what their motive is. “Everything else,” Demir said, “are but newspapers’ fantasies.”

Religion does not seem to play a role in the case. Relations between Christians and Muslims in the area are good. In a region so badly affected by clashes between Kurdish guerrillas and the Turkish army Orthodox priests and imams have urged the population several times to pray together for peace.

It is clear though that this is not the first time that Christians in Midyat and eastern Turkey are caught up in the “war” between Turks and Kurds.

During the 1980s most Syriac Christians from Tur Abdin fled. They were still 65,000 in the mid-eighties; now they are just 2,500. Despite the fact that the region was their ancestral homeland, they left en masse for Istanbul or emigrated abroad, uncertain about their future and fearing for their life.

According to tradition, thanks to the preaching of Saint Jude Apostle who had come to Edessa from Jerusalem after Pentecost, the Semitic branch of Christianity, the one with the least Hellenistic influence, arrived here and prospered.

As far back as 451 A.D., Christians in Syria did not accept the Council of Chalcedon’s definitions and broke away from the other Churches. But in 1984 the current head of the Church, Patriarch Mor Ignatios Zakka I Iwas, met Pope John Paul II in Rome. Together they wrote a joint statement that said: “The confusions and schisms that occurred between their Churches in the later centuries, they realize today, in no way affect or touch the substance of their faith, since these arose only because of differences in terminology and culture and in the various formulae adopted by different theological schools to express the same matter.”

These Christians, who still speak the language that Jesus spoke, continue to live isolated from the rest of the world, far from the country’s nerve centres, held back by a geography that denies them access to easy communications and economic development.

In this highly tense area on the border with Iraq, Turkey tried to introduce reforms to promote development.

In 2001 then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit sent a letter to Syriac communities urging Syriac Christians to come back.

In the past two years many started hoping that they might come home with financial assistance from the state.

In villages around Tur Abdin new houses were built, ready for occupation. But fear has not gone away.

In June 2005 three Christians on their way home were involved in a terrorist attack. Luckily, they survived. They were a Syriac Orthodox priest, a German businessman and the mayor of Harabale, travelling by car from that town to Kafro when a remote-controlled bomb blew up in front of them. They were unhurt, but the episode shows that even today someone is trying to sabotage the government’s initiative to get people back home.

Although investment and development projects in the region have not been interrupted as a result of ongoing clashes, doubts are emerging about the possibility of different ethnic and religious groups living together. And Father Daniel’s abduction is clearly not a good sign.

Who is behind the abduction? No one knows yet. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate is treading lightly, trying not to exacerbate tensions. But once again Turkish media show no such restraint.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

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The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

The most important thing in the fight against Aids, “more important than numbers are individual persons and the dignity of the afflicted person who are battling this disease.

To stop it we must fight its symptoms, but also aggressively attack the field of prevention the only way to wipe this scourge of the face of the earth”.

Fr Alex Vadakunthala, Executive Secretary of the Health Commission of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India said ahead of World Aids Day on December 1st.

According to the priest, “The Church has around 5,000 Health centres all over India, most of these are maternity homes working at prevention at this mother to child transmission of the disease. We have to deal with the issue of ''feminization'' of HIV/AIDS through patients infecting partners who pass it down. Youth have to be our focus”.

The Church has launched a theme for next year: “Young people will guide our future – our future is now!”. For fr. Vadakumthala, this “it is the responsibility of the entire community, our youth has to be equipped with life skills to cope with the tremendous pressures that confront every aspect of their lives. Among these Aids must have first place”. In order to do this he concludes, “There must be a sea change of attitudes among communities and families, our youth must be taught values and respect and dignity of life, not just making them career people, Fidelity, responsibility, and respect are values that the adults should transmit our young people – who are at the crossroads at life-grappling with these same issues”.

Fr. Vm Thomas, Executive Director of Don Bosco Institute (DBI), Guwahiti, Assam, takes up the theme of the disease : “The issue of AIDS and HIV particularly in the States of Nagaland, Manipur and to some extent in Assam is alarming. Our main concern is that the majorityof those affected belong to the age group of 18 yrs to 35yrs. In my opinion after working for over 30 years with the youth this is due to a combination of factors like lack of parental control, and guidance, bombardment of the mediawhich literally seduces the youth, challenging their levels of freedom which is actually licentiousness”.

HIV/AIDS concludes the priest “is no longer just a medical issue but a social and developmental issue. In India, it is not the disease, but the stigma and hypocrisy about it that is prevalent in society, is causing maximum damage. HIV/AIDS is a silent killer, and if we do not help our youth at every level now, it will certainly engulf us.”+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Tony Blair’s coming conversion to the Catholic faith will not be welcomed by all Catholics.

There are many in the Vatican, and the Catholicchurch in this country, who wonder how a politician with his voting record can be admitted to the church.

‘My First Confession’ would be a great title for Tony Blair’s memoirs.At any rate, though the book may be years away, Tony Blair will soon confess his sins to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and later (no one is sure, but the Vatican has heard it will be after Christmas) Mr Blair will be received into the RomanCatholicChurch. And in true Blair style, his decision to ‘Pope’ is creating a political storm.

In the robustly secular world of Westminster, few care what Mr Blair does with his Sundays. But Mr Blair’s conversion is a hot and divisive topic among priests and ordinary Christians in this country — and even in the Vatican itself.

Churchgoers who wrote to their MPs in protest against the former prime minister’s various policy initiatives, from embryo research to laws on homosexual adoption, have good reason to be puzzled.

Has Blair recanted? If he has, shouldn’t he say so publicly before he is received? Or has he decided not so much that he will go to Rome, but that Rome will come to him?

Many are remarkably keen to speak on the subject — but few on the record. ‘I cannot be identified,’ says one senior Vatican source. ‘The amount of good I am able to do here depends on it.’ There are pressing issues here, however.

Some fear that Blair’s conversion has no deep theological basis, and that the rules are being bent in a most spectacular fashion to accommodate him. Others fear that Blair is no more than a secular liberal with broadly Christian — but not obviously Catholic — beliefs.

If Mr Blair were not a public figure, none of this would matter much; at any rate there would be none of the sort of anger that is now sweeping the pews. It is Mr Blair’s prominence and his outspoken religiosity that cause the problem.

The former prime minister has spoken with obvious feeling about what he believes and how he fuses his politics with his creed. Alastair Campbell was not comfortable with this, declaring four years ago that ‘we don’t do God’. But Mr Blair most emphatically does.

Although Anglican, Mr Blair has always attended Mass with his wife, a convent-educated Catholic. He has done so, he says, to keep the family together on Sunday. He has described himself as an ‘ecumenical Christian’, which appears to mean that he confers on himself the right to attend any service he chooses.

In 1996 the late Cardinal Hume wrote asking him to stop taking communion at St Joan of Arc, a Catholicchurch in Islington. He reluctantly agreed, but wrote in reply, ‘I wonder what Jesus would have made of it.’

He might also have wondered what the Anglican and Catholic martyrs would have made of it. Much as it may baffle Blair, people once died rather than deny — or affirm — Catholic Eucharistic teaching; and few practising Anglicans and Catholics would today dream of gatecrashing each other’s communion queues. Yet Mr Blair had come to his own, very unique conclusions about religion, and felt confident enough to lecture a Cardinal on Eucharistic protocol.

In Downing Street, Mr Blair’s faith was seen as a driving factor in his life — but few saw his beliefs as Catholic. ‘If you look at not just his voting record, but his legislative record, he has fought the Church for years,’ says one senior official who worked for him at No. 10. ‘That is why I cannot see how he can enter the Church now. Converts cannot cherry-pick which parts of the faith they agree with. It’s easier for cradle Catholics to dissent, but converts have to sign up to the whole agenda. Perhaps he has changed his mind. I just don’t know.

To critics within the Church, Mr Blair was — as one priest puts it — ‘the most anti-Catholic Prime Minister of modern times’. Others, especially Evangelicals, go further and describe his policies as broadly anti-Christian. He has legalised homosexual civil unions and gay adoptions. He has championed stem-cell research — and with a fervour that contrasts starkly with his friend George Bush’s opposition to such research.

He voted against lowering the abortion limit from 26 weeks to the present 24. His credentials are those of the perfect secular liberal. All this makes it baffling that he should now choose to join the Church that has so often attacked New Labour’s legislative programme.

His friend Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has been an outspoken critic, but Mr Blair has, apparently, been unmoved.

Joining the Catholic Church is not for the doctrinally fainthearted. The convert must first make confession of his serious sins. Next comes the Rite of Reception which includes the declaration: ‘I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God.’ Ann Widdecombe says she had struggled with this sentence before being able to convert herself. ‘So either Tony Blair will perjure himself on a massive scale, or he has genuinely repented. But we can’t send a message that we accept people just because they used to be the prime minister.’

Other Catholics go further. ‘St Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus would pale into insignificance by comparison,’ says John Smeaton, director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, who has a dossier on Mr Blair’s voting record. ‘We need to hear a full repudiation from him. Without one, having Blair as a Catholic is like having a vegetarian in a meat-eating club. It simply does not make sense.’

But might there be more leeway in the conversion process than Mr Blair’s critics suggest? Some would say that there is. The so-called Tablet Catholics — named after the distinguished liberal Catholic weekly — would argue the case for plurality. Cherie Blair puts it like this: ‘The Church isn’t just about the Vatican. It’s about all of us.’

This is the Catholicism of Hans Kung, a Swiss theologian who professes loyalty to Rome but rejects its teaching on celibacy and women priests. That he has been a house guest at 10 Downing Street provides another clue to the Blairs’ thinking.

Mrs Blair made her position explicit in an article two years ago in which she confessed to having ‘doubts’ about some of the Church’s teachings. ‘But I have been taught that you should stay and try to change things. It’s like the Labour party in the 1980s. I wasn’t happy with the way it was going, so I tried to help change it from within. Luckily, we won that battle.’ For all the breathtaking presumptuousness, one cannot fault her ambition. Today: Westminster. Tomorrow: Rome.

But one cannot join the Church as a liberal Catholic. There is only one kind of Catholicism, and its teaching is laid out in the Catechism. No doubt Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor will have discussed the Catechism with Mr Blair; certainly his spiritual adviser will have done. ‘If Cormac is for Blair coming into the Church, then there is nothing anyone down here can say about it,’ says a senior cleric in Rome.

Many priests I spoke to suspect that Mr Blair’s charm may have been impossible for the Cardinal to resist. ‘The Catholic Church in England has been working-class Irish for yonks and we’ve only become socially acceptable in the last 30 years,’ says one London priest. ‘It can be very flattering when you’re courted by the establishment. If Mr Blair came knocking on my door, instead of the usual hobgoblins, I’d be flattered. I can understand if Cormac has been.’

Yet it is just not possible to believe that the Cardinal would allow himself to be seduced into allowing an unsuitable candidate to become a Catholic. But why, ask liberal Catholics, hold Mr Blair to a standard of doctrinal orthodoxy that many of today’s faithful would fail? Mr Blair’s supporters believe opposition to his joining the Church is confined to a handful of Tories and ultra-conservative clerics.

‘Those objecting to Tony’s conversion are modern-day Pharisees,’ says one former aide. ‘How many Catholics can genuinely say they agree with every single one of the Church’s teachings? Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’ Stephen Pound, a Catholic Labour MP, takes a similar view. ‘Perhaps Tony isn’t perfect. But there has only ever been one person on this earth who was. If he wants to join the one, true and indivisible Church then we should celebrate the fact.’

In the Vatican Mr Blair’s conversion has been expected for some time. When he met the Pope last June he brought as a present a picture of Cardinal Newman, the most famous Anglican convert. The meeting consisted of pleasantries, as is the custom on these occasions. An altogether tougher encounter had occurred earlier when Mr Blair met Cardinal Bertone, the papal secretary of state, who laid out the Church’s objections to Mr Blair’s legislation. But there is no Papal blackball on his conversion.

There is concern in Rome, however, over the liberal direction of the Catholic Church in this country. According to a senior Vatican source: ‘The situation in England, from mass attendance to vocations, is as bad as anywhere.’ But things in the US and Germany are bad too. That is why the Pope has decided that there are three appointments that will define what is expected to be a relatively short papacy: new cardinals in New York, Munich and Westminster. All three incumbents have reached the mandatory retirement age.

But finding a successor can be a slow process even under fast-moving Popes. ‘The Holy Father is a gentle man, he works very slowly, to the frustration of some,’ I am told. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham, has long been the frontrunner for Westminster. ‘But he is the Gordon Brown of the Church,’ says once source close to the Cardinal. ‘He thought the job should have been his last time, and he’s been gunning for it ever since.’ The Vatican suspects the Cardinal’s preferred choice is Arthur Roche, Bishop of Leeds.

Both may be in for a disappointment. I am told the Pope is sceptical about choosing anyone from England’s ‘magic circle’ of metropolitan bishops and is actively considering monastic candidates to succeed Cardinal Murphy- O’Connor — just as Basil Hume was plucked from the monastic seclusion of Ampleforth Abbey in 1976. Those already in Church hierarchy, it is feared, are liberals.

But the Cardinal himself is certainly no patsy. Catholic MPs were this week surprised to receive an invitation to a private soirée to discuss the coming ‘parliamentary agenda’ — the first time a ‘Catholic whip’ has been attempted. The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales is clearly not going to stop his campaign against the anti-Christian policies of this government, or of any other. Tony Blair’s conversion may be popular at Westminster Cathedral — but his secular liberalism will not find any sympathisers there. When it comes to his first confession, he will have to follow his conscience — and listen carefully to the advice of his confessor.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople has said that he is prepared to recognize the primacy of the Pope-- although he does not accept the Catholic position on the implications of that primacy.

In an interview with a Bulgarian television network, the Orthodox leader-- who is himself recognized as the "first among equals" in the Orthodox world-- indicated his support for a statement released by the joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission at an October meeting in Ravenna, Italy. That statement had recalled that during the first Christian millennium, the Bishop of Rome was recognized as the foremost of the patriarchs.

Patriarch Bartholomew went on to say, however, that he does not believe the primacy enjoyed by the Pope in the early centuries of Christianity included authority over other patriarchs. The primacy of Rome, he explained, involved precedence of honor rather than disciplinary status over the world's bishops.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.